Electrotherapeutic apparatus



Aug. 18, 1925. 1,550,384

E. K. MULLER ELECTROTHERAPEUTIC APPARATUS Filed March 6, 1923 r lwmzor Patented Aug. 18, 1925.

UNITED EUGEN normal) Mt'rLLER, or KILCHBERG, NEAR ZURICH, SWITZERLAND.

Emcmomeaammm Arraanros.

Application filed March 6, 1923. Serial No. 623,167. .2,

T all :whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, EUGEN KoNRAn 11th) LER, citizen of the Republic of Switzerland, residing at 37 lVembergstrasse, Kllchberg, near Zurich, Switzerland, have lnvented certain new and useful Improvement in Electro' therapeutic Apparatus, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

Since it is known to utilize electricity for therapeutieal purposes electric currents have invariably been used of an intensity which did not take into account the sensitiveness and the irritability of a healthy person and much less of a sick person. Generally the electricity has been conducted from one point of the human body through parts of the latter to another point. The presence and the activity of natural physiological currents in the living body has not been taken into account, nor has it been considered whether the foreign current introduced into the body collided with those natural currents and disturbed the latter. 26 For these reasons the action of the introduced electric current was Very variable.

The subject matter of the present invention is a device adapted to effect a direct electrical influence on the skin nerves, which device comprises two or more electrodes having linear contact spaces with as littl area as possible for the current to :pass, the distance between the electrodes being small and serving for the entrance and the exit respectively of the foreign current into the skin amounting only to fractions of one millimeter.

When a device of this type is placed on the skin and when a passage of the current through the electrodes by the interposition of the skin occurs, not only a stimulating effect on the skin and thereby on the large number of skin nerves is obtained, but by a reflex action an influencing of the inner physiological working of the body occurs, whereby the electro-biological working neither of the organism nor of the skin parts is influenced in a manner prejudicial to that working by the foreign electric cur rent. With the device according to the invention the. electric penetration does not occur through the skin into the interior of the respective part of the body but the electric current which is supplied by the electrodes passes onlythrough a very small depth of the skin layer.

The drawing shows in a plan view a constructional example of the device.

Referring now to the constructional example illustrated, a slot 2 is provided in a plate 1 of insulating material, for instance of ebonite, in which slot the electrodes 3 and 4 are situated, the latter having a linear sh ape and being arranged at a distance from each other that amounts to a fraction of one millimeter. At the rear of the insulating plate 1 contact pins 5 and 6 are provided and adapted to supply the electric current from any suitable source to the electrodes 3 and 4 respectively. The source of current may be of any suitable stationary type or it may be arranged within a handle for carrying the device. The handle is preferably connected to the device by means of a bayonet-joint to enable a convenient exchange of the pair of electrodes. The insulating plate 1 is so shaped and the two electrodes are so inserted into the plate that when the device is placed upon a part of the body a proper contact between the electrodes and the skin is effected.

The electrodes may consist of silver or platinum, or of anysemirconductive, moist, organic, or mineral substances. The electrodes may further be produced from medicinal chemical substances and mixtures and the like or from moist conductive substance by pressing these substances. 7

When treating the skin by means of the electrodes the latter may be moved in a sliding manner along the skin, for instance in the direction at right angles to the longitudinal direction ofthe lectrodes, or a rotary motion maybe applied to the electrodes. During these movements the skin is sucked between the electrodes so that the skin is influenced in a mechanical way in addition to the physiological elfect.

When an extraordinary sensitiveness of a patient with regard to electric currents has to be considered the electrodes may be made of different metals which are of different electrical potentials, so an electric tension is generated when these metals are in contact with the moist skin, causing a current to flow through the skin when the electrodes are short-circuited.

.I claim:

1. In an electro-therapeutic device, the combination With a non-conductive support; 01. a pair of parallel linear electrodes there on, of opposite polarity Whose distance apart is not over one millimeter.

2. In an electro-therapeutic device, the combination with a non-conductive support; 01 a pair of parallel linear electrodes of opposite polarity substantially flush with the surface of the support Whose distance apart is less than one millimeter.

3. In an electro-therapeutic device the combination with an elongated non-condnc-- tire support having a curved surface; of a pair of parallel linear electrodes in said support With their surfaces substantiall flush With the curved surface, the space between the electrodes being less than a millimeter.

In testimony Whereoi I afiix my signature.

EUGEN KONRAD MULLER. 

